Latest Podcast



Featured Articles

Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom wants to ban inflation-related rises in phone and broadband contracts. Instead, it says any potential mid-contract price rises should be set out in pounds and pence.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Global smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

New Hutchison/Vodafone network would be biggest UK operator

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

UK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Which? seeks payout for Samsung and Apple smartphone owners

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
RSS

Opinion Articles

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Facebook to raise $5 billion from Initial Public Offering

Mil Arcega of voanews.com writes:

Facebook is going public. The world’s largest social media network filed documents late Wednesday for its much anticipated initial public offering (IPO). Analysts say the initial offer will raise about $5 billion in the first go around, making it one of the biggest in recent history. We take a look at how much the company is worth and what that could mean for investors.

With more than 800 million users worldwide, Facebook is second only to Google as the most visited website on the Internet.

But with plans to raise an initial $5 billion from its first IPO, analysts say the company is poised to become one of the richest.

Equity analyst Anupam Palit at Greencrest Capital says when it comes to social media, nothing even comes close to Facebook.

“It is the biggest company in this space and we believe what makes it very unique from every other company that went public last year in this space is that it is very, very profitable,” said Palit.

How profitable?  Early estimates suggest the social network is worth between $50 to $100 billion. David Kirkpatrick is author of The Facebook Effect:

“Will Facebook’s IPO be the biggest IPO in American history, probably not, but it will certainly be by far the biggest Internet or technology IPO we’ve ever seen,” said Kirkpatrick.

And when ticker symbol FB starts trading a few months from now, it could make Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg - at 27 - one of the world's youngest billionaires.

Institutional investors are likely to get the first shot at buying Facebook stock. But asset manager Jim O’Shaugnessy says that's not such a bad thing.

“Many IPO’s come out being very, very overvalued because they get so hyped up and investors are so taken in by the story that they’re willing to pay any amount just to be able to get into the stock,” said O’Shaugnessy. “That generally translates to being very overvalued.  So we generally tell investors that they should wait, probably a good full year before they look at buying stock that was recently IPO’d.”

Market performance for Internet IPOs often does not live up to the hype.  The most recent - LinkedIn, Groupon and Zynga, all saw share prices plummet as much as 25 percent after going public.

There were similar doubts about Google when it went public in 2004. Back then Google stock sold for $84.  Today it’s worth almost $600 a share.

Despite the risks, analysts say there’s no shortage of investors willing to take a chance on the next big thing.

Originally published on voanews.com
Print
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Rate this article:
No rating

Categories: Applications, OpinionNumber of views: 8519

Tags: facebook social networking

Leave a comment

This form collects your name, email, IP address and content so that we can keep track of the comments placed on the website. For more info check our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use where you will get more info on where, how and why we store your data.
Add comment

Recent Podcasts

Mobile industry predictions for 2015, from smartphones to spectrum

Podcast - 17th December 2014

The Fonecast predicts 2015: Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge gather round a sapphire crystal ball and make their forecasts for the next 12 months in the mobile industry.

Whose product line won't survive until December 2015? What will happen with the BT/EE merger? Which new features will be introduced by smartphone manufacturers?

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Mobile industry podcast: new smartphones, new network equipment and new insight

Podcast - 10th December 2014

It's time for another news-packed mobile industry podcast from TheFonecast.com, starting with the European Parliament's latest ruling on in-car emergency communication.

After that we're talking about Microsoft's departure from the Nook eBook business, Three UK's 4G growth, Acer's tablet-sized phone, EE's rural coverage solution and some interesting new research about mobile-enabled customer service.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Takeovers, break-ups, national roaming, dubious advertising and the death of the landline

Podcast - 3rd December 2014

We begin this week's podcast with updates on two topics we discussed last week: the potential purchase of a UK mobile network by BT - and the crowd-funded Jolla Tablet.

After that we talk about the GSMA's reaction to national roaming, the potential death of the landline, a new threat to Google, management changes and advertising for 4G data.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

BT talks to O2, Nokia and Jolla announce new tablets, Apple Watch developers get started... and Ofcom plans for more mobile capacity

Podcast - 26th November 2014

In this week's podcast we're talking about the potential purchase of the O2 UK mobile network by BT.

We also discuss new tablets from Nokia and Jolla, the end of a patent battle, mobile payments via instant messaging, app development for the Apple Watch and plans to make even more spectrum available for mobile broadband in the UK .

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

The week's UK mobile industry news, including BlackBerry, TalkTalk, 4G data and much more

Podcast - 19th November 2014

Time for another podcast presented by Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge. They begin this week's programme by talking about the latest enterprise-friendly developments from BlackBerry.

Next comes a new survey from Ofcom about the UK's 4G data speeds, followed by news about TalkTalk's MVNO deal with Telefonica, the growth of WiFi in the home and a report from AVG about social media sapping smartphone performance.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
RSS
245678910Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Twitter @TheFonecast RSS podcast feed
Find us on Facebook Subscribe free via iTunes

Archive Calendar

«April 2024»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
25262728293031
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293012345

Archive

Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement